The PRIDE Study emerged from a lack of longitudinal data about LGBTQ+ health and health disparities. Dr. Mitchell Lunn and Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver will share their experience with developing and maintaining this crucial study for LGBTQ+ health.

One Lesbian’s Journey to Professorship: A Story of Resilience in EmojiJennifer Potter, M.D.

Dr. Jennifer Potter will share her research on trauma-informed care, LGBTQ health, and educational mentoring interspersed with her personal story.

Keynote Speakers

Marci Bowers, M.D. of Burlingame, California, is acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of Genital Reassignment Surgery and is the first woman worldwide to hold a personal transgender history while performing transgender surgery. She is also the first US surgeon to learn the technique of functional clitoral restoration after Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Dr. Bowers is a pelvic and gynecologic surgeon with more than 28 years’ experience. She is a University of Minnesota Medical School graduate and former class and student body president. After Ob/Gyn residency at the University of Washington, she continued in Seattle as an Obstetrician/Gynecologist at the Polyclinic and Swedish Medical Center. She then apprenticed with Dr. Stanley Biber in Trinidad, Colorado in 2003, eventually redefining US transgender surgery. Dr. Bowers relocated her surgical practice to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010.

Dr. Bowers parlayed her pelvic surgery expertise by learning FGM clitoral restoration from noted French surgeon, Dr. Pierre Foldes in 2007-2009. Dr. Bowers is now additionally sought after as a speaker and worldwide surgical educator on FGM and clitoral restoration and has been featured in numerous documentaries and news features including the Guardian, BBC, Times of London, Esquire and many others.

Dr. Bowers is a member of WPATH, and has served on the board of directors for both GLAAD and the Transgender Law Center. In 2016, she joined the faculty at Mt. Sinai-Beth Israel in New York to establish the first transgender surgical educational program in the US and performed the first live surgical vaginoplasty in a WPATH-sponsored surgical educational program in 2018. Her transgender work has been highlighted by appearances on Oprah, CBS Sunday Morning and Discovery Health. In addition to many accolades, Dr. Bowers is recognized as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people on the Guardian’s World Pride Power List and one of Huffington Post’s 50 Transgender Icons.

Dr. Obedin-Maliver is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist who is both clinically and academically active. Dr. Obedin-Maliver is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at The University of California, San Francisco and The Chief of Gynecology at The San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) where she provides full-spectrum gynecology care. Her academic focus is on promoting the health of and well-being sexual and gender minorities (SGM) which include but are not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. A special emphasis that combined her clinical and academic interests is the focus on the reproductive health of transgender and gender expansive individuals.

Dr. Obedin-Maliver, is the Co-Director of The PRIDE Study (pridestudy.org), an online prospective longitudinal cohort of sexual and gender minority individuals based at University of California, San Francisco. She is Co-Investigator of PRIDEnet, a participant powered research network of sexual and gender minority people (pridestudy.org/pridenet) whose mission is to help catalyze LGBTQ Health Research. She also serves on the medical advisory board of the UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health and is the Gynecology Lead on the Transgender Quality Improvement project at SFVAMC and is involved in many other national and international research projects that promote health equity for LGBTQ and SGM people.

Mitchell (Mitch) Lunn, M.D., M.A.S., FASN is an Assistant Professor in Division of Nephrology of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the co-director of The PRIDE Study (pridestudy.org) – a national, online, longitudinal health cohort study of the physical, mental, and social health of sexual and gender minority (SGM) people with more than 11,500 participants.

Mitch is a long-standing advocate for SGM inclusion in research and higher education who lectures around the country on SGM medical education, SGM health, and SGM community engagement. As an internist and nephrologist with a strong interest in technology and SGM health, his research is designed to characterize the health and well-being of these populations. Through the use of existing and emerging technologies, he focuses on improving understanding of the factors that positively and negatively influence SGM health including research on SGM health disparities, SGM societal experiences (in and out of health care), provider education about SGM health, and institutional climate towards SGM people. The PRIDE Study employs innovative technologies to bridge research gaps in the health of medically underserved and vulnerable SGM communities.

Mitch co-directs PRIDEnet, a PCORI-funded participant-powered research network of SGM people that engages SGM communities at all stages of the biomedical research process: research question generation and prioritization, study design, recruitment, participation, data analysis, and results dissemination. PRIDEnet accomplishes its goals through a highly active Participant Advisory Committee (PAC) and a national Community Partner Consortium comprised of 41 SGM-serving health centers, community centers, and service/advocacy organizations across the country.

Mitch earned his Bachelor of Science degree with highest thesis honors from Tufts University in 2004, his Doctor of Medicine degree from Stanford School of Medicine in 2010, and his Masters in Advanced Studies degree in Clinical Research from UCSF in 2017. He completed internal medicine residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) in 2013 and nephrology fellowship at UCSF in 2016. In recognition of his SGM health work, he received the 2015 UCSF Chancellor’s Award for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Leadership.

Darin Latimore, M.D.
Deputy Dean for Diversity and Inclusion
Yale School of MedicinePronouns: he, him, his

Dr. Latimore has been Deputy Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) since January 2017, and is the School of Medicine’s inaugural Chief Diversity Officer.

Alongside YSM senior leadership, Dr. Latimore is responsible for developing a comprehensive plan for furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion at the school, including a robust recruitment and retention program for faculty, and students from historically underrepresented in medical communities. He coordinates with such groups as the Diversity, Inclusion, Community Engagement & Equity (DICE), the Minority Organization for Retention and Expansion (MORE), the Committee on the Status of Women in Medicine (SWIM), the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (CDISJ), and the Dean’s Advisory Council on LGBTQ Affairs.

As part of his current strategy is to improve the cultural climate for all of YSM. Dr. Latimore has given over 40 talks on the topic of unconscious bias, training 1000 people. Dr. Latimore’s research focus is microaggressions and how it affects health professional students in the educational environment.

Dr. Latimore’s passion for promoting diversity and inclusion stems from his own background. As an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley, he felt isolated on a campus where there were few African-Americans and even fewer students from his socioeconomic background. After obtaining his medical degree at University of California, Davis School of Medicine, he completed his residency in internal medicine at University of California, Davis Medical Center.

Dr. Potter is Professor of Medicine, Advisory Dean and Director of the William B. Castle Society, and Director of Wellness at Harvard Medical School. Formerly Director of the Women’s Health Program at Fenway Health, a Boston-based LGBTQ health center, she now serves as Co-Chair of The Fenway Institute and Director of its LGBT Population Health Program. As a clinical innovator, educational leader, and quality improvement researcher, Dr. Potter’s scholarly work focuses on improving care for underserved and marginalized communities– in particular, LGBTQ populations. Dr. Potter’s home institution at Harvard is Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she founded a primary care women’s health clinic that also offers consultation on cancer survivorship and female sexual health.

Dr. Potter has focused her medical education work on similar topics; deliverables include a vast array of both print and online teaching products, as well as curricular guidelines. Of these, she is most proud of her work as a founding member of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ AXIS Committee, which published a groundbreaking medical education guideline entitled: Implementing Curricular and Institutional Climate Changes to Improve Health Care for Individuals Who Are LGBT, Gender Nonconforming, or Born with Differences in Sex Development. On the quality improvement research front, Dr. Potter’s completed projects, all conducted at Fenway Health, include: enhancing HPV vaccine rates among previously unvaccinated young adults; implementing cross-clinic intimate partner violence screening; increasing uptake of long-acting, reversible contraception; utilizing trauma-informed care principles to increase cervical cancer screening rates among hard-to-reach patients; and exploring the acceptability and performance characteristics of patient-centered alternatives to cervical Pap testing.

Rob Stewart is an Emmy award-winning PBS Television Host, Executive Producer and one of Northern California’s most sought-after emcees. Rob is the Executive Producer and Host of his weekly television series Rob on the Road, capturing the unique spirit of the Golden State through people and places. Rob on the Road is produced at KVIE PBS in the Capitol of the Golden State, Sacramento, the 20th largest television market in the nation. In 2018, viewers ranked Rob on the Road as the station’s top local program, entering its 10th consecutive season. Simply put, Rob is the California explorer. Rob is the host you want to take you on an adventure and the person you want to share your story.
Rob is the 2017 Emmy Award Winner for Rob on the Road: Heroes & Helping Hands and has 4 consecutive Emmy nominations for Best Television Host in Northern California. Rob received 3 California Telly Awards, the 2016 Golden Bear Award for Community Service from the California State Fair’s Best of CA Awards and was named the Sacramento Arts Reporter of the Year in 2014. Rob is a Senior Fellow with the American Leadership Forum Class XIX, serves on the Board of Directors of Broadway Sacramento and the Capital City AIDS Fund. His passion is being an advocate for anyone in need of inspiration. Rob supports dozens of California non-profits. When asked for a quote for his bio, Rob said, “This isn’t about me. I’m just a conduit for people to share their story. My hope is that each person I interview will know and feel that I see them, I hear them, and that they matter. I want each person to stop for a moment and see their authentic light, and if my questions can help someone realize that their light is shining brightly and then I share it with others, then I’ve hopefully done my job and calling.”
Rob lives in Sacramento with his two dogs, Churchill and Harry.

Conference Presenters

Maria Alaniz, MPH

Maria Alaniz is currently the Project Manager for the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities, managing a five year multi-phased project in partnership with Solano County focused on improving access and utilization of Mental Health services for underserved communities. She is a Public Health enthusiast with over 10 years’ experience working towards reducing health disparities. Her passion for Public Health began when she became involved in a student run organization as an undergraduate helping coordinate quarterly health fairs to rural areas in Tecate, Mexico that did not have medical services. Maria graduated with a double Bachelor’s in Sociology and Anthropology from UCLA and a Master in Public Health from Boston University. During the course of her career she has acquired experience in a wide range of areas including: community engagement, qualitative research, health communication, health literacy, prenatal care, prenatal genetic screening, diabetes education, and curriculum development. Prior to joining the Center, Maria was the Program Manager for the California Department of Public Health’s Northern California Region, Prenatal Screening Program, which encompassed over 40 Counties. She aspires to be a leader in her field and to always work towards addressing the social determinants of health for better health outcomes for all communities.

Holly Beitch, MPH

Holly completed her Master of Public Health degree in August 2018 from the UC Davis School of Medicine. Her capstone project was focused on understanding the quality of LGBTQ+ care at the UC Davis Health System. This project solidified her interest and passion in addressing health equity with the LGBTQ+ population and she is glad for the opportunity to present some of her findings from the capstone project at the Improving OUTcomes conference.

John Davis, M.D., Ph.D.Associate Dean for CurriculumAssociate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious DiseasesUniversity of California, San FranciscoPronouns:

Dr. Davis’ clinical care and research interests are in infections of the immunocompromised host (including people living with or at risk for HIV infection). He is also interested in sexual and gender minority health (including LGBT health). His educational interests are in curriculum development, especially around the experiences of LGBT learners in the academic medical center setting, and how curriculum can help address LGBT/SGM health(care) disparities.

Dr. Eidson-Ton received her Master of Health and Medical Sciences from UC Berkeley and her Medical Degree from UCSF. She then completed the combined Family Medicine/Obstetrics residency program at UC Davis in 2002, and has been a member of the faculty at UC Davis since that time. Her clinical work and teaching is focused around maternal child health and women’s health more generally. She has cared for many LGBTQ identified individuals in her work as a primary care physician and is passionate about health equity in the LGBTQ community.

Dr. Gardner is a Family Medicine physician within Sutter Medical Group located off of Alhambra Blvd. Katherine completed her undergraduate studies at UC San Diego, attended UC Irvine for medical school and completed her residency in Family Medicine at UC Davis. She has developed an expertise in Transgender Medicine while working at the Gender Health Center in Sacramento, California. She currently works as a primary care physician and a consulting physician for transgender health at Sutter Medical Group in Sacramento and works at the Gender Health in the prescription hormone clinic and PrEP clinic.

Jason Gritti, M.D., M.B.A.Chief of Documentation and CodingAssistant Chief of Adult and Family MedicineCo-Chair Diversity Inclusion (LGBTQ+)Kaiser Permanente South SacramentoPronouns: he, him, his

Jason Gritti, M.D., M.B.A, is a board certified Internal Medicine physician with a passion for preventative health care and education. Dr. Gritti is currently Chief of Documentation and Coding, Co-Chair of Diversity and Inclusion, Intimate Partner Violence Physician Lead, and Module Lead for Adult and Family Medicine at Kaiser Permanente. His Diversity and Inclusion work has a focus on Transgender Sensitivity Training and education on sexual and gender minority (SGM) care. Including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning (LGBTQ+) individuals. The main goal of his work is to train and support both clinicians and staff on how to address and reduce the disparities of care in this member population.

Dr. Gritti believes that a key aspect of his work is to help providers, in both primary care and subspecialty care, understand that while there are clearly some unique needs in this population, it is not overwhelming or insurmountable. This minority group includes people that are often just looking for compassionate and culturally sensitive care. As a provider, you cannot understand and correctly treat your patients if we do not know who they really are. Some of this work is to promote education and understanding, to reduce the anxiety created historically, by our education system not providing the training on the needs of this patient population. The lack of this knowledge, makes colleagues and supportive staff feel unprepared when providing care for our SGM patients. The patients and members deserve only the best treatment which includes culturally sensitive care.

Dr. Gritti received his MD from St. George University, while co-matriculating a Diploma of Higher Education in Medical Sciences from Northumbria University, Newcastle U.K. He completed his Medical Residency at SUNY Downstate University in Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Gritti made the decision to go back to medical school after working in medical research at Boston Scientific and Kyphon Corporation. He worked first in cardiovascular research and then minimally invasive spinal research. During that time, he earned his MBA in Medical Healthcare Management from AIU, and his MA in Business Management from St. Scholastica. Historical he comes from Minneapolis, MN and earned his undergrad from Minnesota State University. Dr. Gritti states that this passion to address Disparities of Care was triggered initially by the foreign exchange studies completed at Wycliff Hall, Oxford, England, Tanjin Foreign Studies University, Tanjin, China, and School for Field Studies, Boston University – Kenya, Africa. This radically changed his viewpoint on life and made him want to focus more on both equality and equity of care.

Ben Hudson is a human rights activist, community organizer, and educator. Ben is the founding Executive Director of the Gender Health Center (GHC), a grassroots non-profit providing healthcare and advocacy for marginalized and underserved populations with a focus on transgender folks. He is co-founder of TransFamilies Sacramento, and serves as a co-chair of the LGBT Foster Youth Task Force. He sits on the Steering Committee of the California LGBT Health and Human Services Network. He is recognized as a master trainer on cultural competency for sexual orientation & gender identity/expression. In 2012 Ben received the Spirit of Harvey Milk Award and in 2013 was listed on the inaugural Trans 100 list; a national effort to shift the coverage of transgender narratives to focus on the positive work being done by 100 transgender activists nationwide

Leon (Lee) Jones, M.D.
Associate Dean for Students
University of California, San FranciscoPronouns: he, him, his

Dr. Jones received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. After completing a psychiatry residency and chief residency at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Neuropsychiatric Institute, he entered a consultation – liaison fellowship at Cornell Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center followed by a research fellowship at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Jones has worked in medical school curricular affairs, graduate medical education, admissions, and student affairs at Tulane, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Arizona at Tucson, and University of California at Davis (UCD) prior to returning to UCSF as the Associate Dean for Students. Dr. Jones has been a Liaison Committee for on Medical Education (LCME) Site Team member and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Holistic Review Site Team member. He serves as the Past Chair of the Group on Student Affairs National Steering Committee at AAMC and the Chair of the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) Task Force. His clinical work is in Emergency Department Psychiatry and Medical- Surgical Consultation Psychiatry.

Dr. MacDonald is a practicing primary care internist and clinical informaticist. In the first role, he regularly treats LGBT patients in his practice at UC Davis Health. In the latter role, he serves as the medical director of the UCDH Electronic Medical Record. Among many other duties and interests, he facilitated the implementation of the ability to capture sexual orientation and gender identity– the first academic medical center to do so. He continues to work with Epic and health systems across the country to optimize the capture and use of SOGI data.

Ed Mills, Ph.D.Vice President for Student AffairsCalifornia State University, SacramentoPronouns: he, him, his

Ed Mills began in public higher education as a financial aid coordinator over 32 years ago and has since devoted his career to developing and implementing new strategies for enrollment management, student services and enhancing student engagement and well-being. At Sacramento State, Ed currently serves as the Vice President for Student Affairs overseeing more than 50 departments and programs. He received his bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University, a master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership/Human Resource Studies from Colorado State University.

Helping students succeed is Ed’s passion. He is very accessible to students and spends a considerable amount of time each week meeting with individual students or attending events and programs. Ed participates in new student orientation meetings with students and their families, and enjoys interacting with students at commencement. He also teaches a freshmen seminar course each fall. Ed is always looking for new and innovative ways to serve students. Current initiatives include the development of a new Financial Literacy program as part of a larger focus to enhance student wellness on-campus. He and Student Affairs are investing in multiple strategies to help promote a more welcoming and caring campus for all students.

Locally, Ed serves as a board member for the Future Foundation of Sacramento. This non-profit organization seeks out high-achieving, low-income high school students in the Sacramento area and provides them with mentoring and up to $35,000 in scholarship funding for their college education. He is also on the Rainbow Chamber Foundation, providing scholarships for LGBTQ students in the Sacramento area as well as a board member of Teen Impact Drivers. Teen Impact’s mission is to change the culture of the preventable crisis of teenage reckless and distracted driving through a nationwide educational program.

Queer VoicesSacramento LGBT Community Center

The Queer Voices panel is sponsored by the Sacramento LGBT Community Center. The Center works to create a region where LGBTQ people thrive – “We support the health and wellness of the most marginalized, advocate for equality and justice, and work to build a culturally rich LGBTQ community”.

Dr. Rao completed her Bachelor of Arts in Cultural and Social Anthropology with a focus in Medical Anthropology at Stanford University. She attended medical school at UC San Diego and completed her residency in combined Family Medicine/Psychiatry at UC Davis. She currently works at UC Davis in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences where she practices psychiatry and family medicine for underserved populations through Sacramento County. She and her wife (a family practitioner) have helped run a free transgender hormone clinic through the Gender Health Center since 2012 and work to increase transgender cultural and medical competency among providers in the Northern California region. Her teaching duties at UC Davis Health include seminars on culture, medicine and psychiatry for residents and medical students, in which she focuses on issues of unconscious bias and structural inequity.

As the HIV Partner Services Program Specialist at California Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS, Manny Rios enthusiastically shares 11 years of working experience in the field sexual health and HIV/STD prevention, education, and training across clinical and in non-clinical settings. His specialty and passion is to bridge patients and providers with information, education and services that benefit both. He brings a wealth of knowledge and a variety of perspectives that address the challenges and focuses on solution to improve the patient-provider interaction around sexual health.

Dr. Scott received his MD from Yale School of Medicine; and completed his Internal Medicine residency, Chief Residency, Infectious Disease fellowship, and post-doctoral research training in the Traineeship for AIDS Prevention Studies at UCSF.

He has a particular interest in the epidemiology of HIV-related racial/ethnic disparities among men who have sex with men (MSM), and interventions to reduce these disparities. Dr. Scott currently has a NIMH K23 award to develop and test a mobile app-based combination HIV intervention of home HIV self-testing, STI self-collection, and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake among young Black and Latino MSM in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A leader in nonprofit and academic organizations for over two decades, Paul works in the intersection between nonprofit and volunteer management, public health and patient activation in order to help organizations maximize their messaging and influence with targeted online audiences. His in-depth experiences across various sectors (healthcare, music, art, academia, government and youth organizations) gives him a unique perspective on how to optimize engagement with targeted networks.

Paul currently serves as the digital marketing and communications specialist for UC Davis Graduate Studies and the blog editor for the UC Davis LGBTQ+ Health Initiative and Improving OUTcomes. He is the vice-chair of the UC Davis Deans LGBTQ+ Health Advisory Council and is a regular campus presenter for the UC Davis Health Diversity Dialogues, UC Davis Campus Communicators, and UC Davis Forum on Social Media, contributing Continuing Medical Education lectures and workshops about the influence of the internet on social wellness, long-term, strategic engagement, and building safe spaces for diverse populations.

Dr. Ton is the Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity, and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. He serves as the Director of Education at the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities where he authored a training program to teach health care leaders how to make culturally and linguistically appropriate system changes at academic, county, and state health organizations. He is also the founding medical director of the Transcultural Wellness Center of Asian Pacific Community Counseling; a community clinic that specializes in serving the mental health needs of Sacramento’s diverse Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

Dr. Ton received the UC Davis Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community in 2005; the 2007 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Community Engagement for his work with communities, ethnic minorities, and cultural competence; and the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Exemplary Psychiatrist Award in 2016.

Dr. Ton has presented nationally on the topics of cultural competence, education, and system change and regularly receives teaching, leadership, and community awards for his work with health care professionals and underserved communities. His areas of interests include diversity and inclusion, professionalism, cultural psychiatry, humanistic psychology, medical student education, and faculty development.

Dr. Nix Zelin is a Psychiatry intern at Stanford Medicine. She graduated earlier this year cum laude from the Yale School of Medicine. In her time at Yale, she founded and chaired the Dean’s Advisory Council for LGBTQI+ Affairs, served as President and Executive Board Member of the LGBTQ health professional group, co-led the development of an integrated four year LGBTQ health thread in the medical curriculum, led multiple research projects pertaining to sexual orientation and gender diversity in the healthcare workforce and LGBTQ health topics, and served on the Dean’s Committee of Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, the Association of American Medical College’s Committee on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Development, and as Vice President of the Northeast Medical Student Queer Alliance.